Thursday

What is racial profiling?

It's important to start with a definition to frame this conversation. Here are a couple definitions I found:

"
The most common example of police racial profiling is "DWB", otherwise known as "driving while black". This refers to the practice of police targeting African Americans for traffic stops because they believe that African Americans are more likely to be engaged in criminal activity."
http://www.ethnicmajority.com/racial_profiling.htm

"Racial profiling refers to the use of an individual's race or ethnicity by law enforcement personnel as a key factor in deciding whether to engage in enforcement (e.g. make a traffic stop or arrest)."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racial_profiling


I found it interesting that racial profiling only applies to law enforcement. I thought there might be a broader definition that would include assumptions being made based on race in other situations.

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